The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1887-11-22

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| reality.
That young man smoking cigarettes and
smoking cigars has no idea that he is getting
for himself smoked liver. That young man
has no idea that he has by early dissipation so
depleted his energies that he will go into the
battle only half armed. Napoleon lost Water
loo days before it was fought. Had he attack
ed the English army before it was reinforced,
and taken it division by division, he might
have won the day, but he waited
until he had only one hundred thous-
and men against two hundred thousand
And here is young man who, if he put all his
forces against the regiment of youthful temp
tations, in the strength of God might drive
them back. but he is allowing them to be REIN
forced by the whole army of mid-life tempta-
tons, and when all these combined forces are
massed againsl him and no Grouchy comes to
help him, and Butcher has come to help his
foes, what but immortal defeat can await
him2
Oh, my young brother, do not make the
mistake that thousands all around you are
making, in opening the battle against sin too
late, for this world too late, and for the worlds
to come too late. What brings that express
train flom st. Louis into Jersey City three
hours late? They lost fifteen minutes early
on the route, and that affected them all the
way, and they had to be switched off here and
switched OFT there, and detained here and de-
tanned there, and the man who loses time and
strength in the earlier part of the journey of
life, will suffer for it all the way through, the
first twenty years Of life damaging the follow
ing fifty years.
Some years ago a scientific lecturer went
through the country exhibiting on great cam
vas different parts of the human body when
healthy, and different parts when diseased.
And what the world wants now is some elo-
quent scientist to go through the country
showing to our young people on blazing can
vas the drunkards liver, the idler's liver, the
hbertine's liver, the gamblers liver. Perhaps
the spectacle might stop some young man be-
fore he comes to the same catastrophe and the
dart strike through his own liver.
My heareI, this is the first sermon you have
heard on the gospel Of health, and it may be
the last you will ever hear on the subject and
L charge you in the name of God, and Christ
and usefulness, and eternal destiny, take bet
ter care of your health. When some of YOU
die, if your friends put on your tombstone
truthful epitaph, it will read Here lies the
victim of late suppers;" or, 1t will be: "Fe-
hold what chicken salad at midnight will do
cigars day closed my earthly
existence" or it will be: Sat down in
a cold draught and this is the result" or twill
be: 81 died of thin shoes last winter or it
will -: event out without an overcoat and
took this last chilli or it will be: Thought I
could do at seventy what did at twenty, and
1 am here )" or it will be- "Here is the conse-
quence of sitting half day with wet feet" or
it will be: This is where have stacked my
harvest of wild oats;' or, instead of words
the stone cutter will chisel for an epitaph on
the tombstone two figures: namely, a dart
and a liver.
There is a KIND CT sickness that is beautiful
when it comes from overwork for God, or ones
country, or ones own family. 1 have seen
wounds that were glorious. After the battle
of Antietam in the hospital soldier, in reply
to my question, "Where are you hurt?' I'M
covered his bosom and showed me a cash that
looked like a badge of eternal nobility. I
have seen an empty sleeve that was more
beautiful than the most muscular forearm.
L have seen O green shade over the eye
shot out in battle that was more beau
tiful than any two eyes that had passed
without injury. I have seen an old mission
airy, worn out with the malaria of African jun
giles, who looked to me more radiant than
rubicund gymnaSt. I have seen a mother,
after six weeks watching over family of
children down with scarlet fever, with glory
around her pale and wan face that surpassed
the angelic. 1t all depends on how you got
your sickness and in what battle your wounds.
Frederick 7. Frelinghuysen, the pride
of New Jsrsey-aye, of the nation
church. and for nearly four years practically
: Mesident of the United States, although in the
oehce of secretary of state, in his determination
to make peace with all the governments on
this American continent, wore himself out,
and while his brain was as keen as it ever
was, and his heart beat as regularly as it ever
did, he was, according to the bulletin of his
physicians at Washington and Newark, dying
of hardening of the liver. Satan, who does
not like good men, sent a dart through his
liver. The last my dear friend-for he was
my friend and my fathers friend before me-
the last he was seen in Washington
was in the Presidents carriage, leaning
his head against the shoulder of the president
on his way to the depot to take the train to go
home to die. Martyr of the public service, he
died for his country, though he died in time of
peace. In his earlier life he was called the
nephew of his uncle, Theodore Frelinghuysen,
ht,4 ,.l1,f
q service that will make others proud to be his
nephew, and which will keep his name on the
scroll of history as the highest style of Christ
ian statesman that this century or any other
century has produced My Lord and my God
II we must get sick and worn out,
let it be in Thy service, and
in the effort to make the world good
and happy. Not in the service of sin. Mol No!
One of the most pathetic scenes that l ever
witnessed, and 1 often see it, is thatIof men or
women converted in the tifties or sixties or
seventies wanting to be useful, but they SO
served the world and Satan in the earlier part
of their life that they have no physical energy
left for the service of God They sacrificed
nerves, muscles, lungs, heart and liver on the
wrong altar. They fought on the wrong side,
and now, when their sword is all hacked up
and their ammunition all gone, they enlist for
Emmanuel. When the high-mettled
cavalry horse, which that man spurred
into many q cavalry charge with
champing BIT and flaming eye and neck cloth
ed with thunder, is worn out and spawned
and ring-boned and spring-halt, he rides up to
the great Captain of our salvation on the white
horse and offers his services. When such
persons might have been, through the good
habits of a lifetime, crashing the battle-ax
through helmeted iniquities, they are spending
their days and nights in discussing the best
way of breaking up their indigestion and
quieting their jangling nerves and rous-
ing their laggard appetite and trying
to extract the dart from their outraged liver.
Better converted late than neyerl Oh, yes
for they viii get to heaven. But they win so
afoot when they might have wheeled up the
steep hills of esky in Elijahs chariot. There
is an old hymn that We used to sing in the
country meeting house when was boy, and
l remember how the old folks voices trembled
with emotion while they sang it, have for
gotten all but two lines but those lines are the
peroration of my sermon:
"'Twil save US from thousand suares
To mind religion young"
Pain from indigestion, dyspepsia, and too